Click Box chat to MEOKO + Exclusive Mix

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Published on Tuesday, 16 October 2012 21:59

Click Box, spotted by Troy Pierce and Magda in 2007 and signed straight to the Items & Things label, are famous for their timeless, hybrid proto acid synth techno house sound. With their innovative productions and their fresh approach to presenting their music live, they firmly placed themselves at the forefront of musical synthesis and electronic evolution, thus perfectly fitting into the M_nus family who warmly welcomed the two Brazilians hailing from Sao Paulo. Playing together since the age of fifteen, Marco AS and Pedro Turra, who run a production studio together, are moving and shaking various musical projects which have reached the realms of the mainstream, with Ronaldinho starring in an advert they supplied the soundtrack to, yet they have stayed fantastically faceless, humbly hiding behind their machine-like moniker and a super sleek sound that bridges any gap between genres, and melting the most vital ingredients into a massive forward pushing entity. Their mix for MEOKO was recently recorded in a hotel room and reflects a high level of energy, genre-defying and powerful sounds. And to top it all off, we also managed to talk to the guys!

Hey dear Marco and Pedro, first of all, thanks for taking your time and making this podcast!

Hey, it was a pleasure! Thank you

How did you make it? What was important for you to get across with it?

We recorded it live, it was in an hotel room during our last tour in Europe. We think its important to record podcasts , this way we can spread our music to more people!

Is it a live set or a dj set?

Its a live set, we only played our tracks!

What kind of musical sounds did you try to weave in?

We do a lot of different styles, so you'll find techno, house, detroit and chicago influences, a little bit of 80's sound! When we work in the studio we don't get stuck to a genre.

Whose records do you like to play at the moment, who makes your mouth stand wide open?

Lots of stuff, hard to remember. We love to play old tracks, doesn't matter if its techno, house, detroit or chicago. We play a lot of stuff, edits that we do, unrelased stuff that people send!

What is the most important for you when you play live? I guess an amazing sound system and a crowd with a defined musical taste...

That’s true, without a good sound system, you don't feel the music and this is important when you play live, you need to feel it. The crowd has to be good also, super boring when you play and people are distracted, we like to play for people that get nuts with the music!!

And what about DJ sets, how do you define yourself there...?

Pedro is a DJ since he’s twelve years old, so its very natural for him, me (Marco), i am learning to get better, learning how to make a good track selection! We really like playing DJ sets also, it’s a moment that we feel really free and relaxed!

I read you met fifteen years ago... what were you like then? What connected you right from the beginning?

I was a musician and Pedro a DJ. Both of us were really into electronic music but playing different projects. Later in 2004 as we were good friends, we decided to make music together as Click Box.

I also read your parents and uncles were djs and producers, what kind of music did they make?

Pedro's father was a DJ playing disco and funk. My uncle wasn't a musician but had an Yamaha DX7 and I was studying piano since the age of five so it was a really cool toy for me!

How come you both got into the same thing, and went into the same direction?

Pedro was playing as a DJ since 1994 and I was playing keys in a different band, we were friends and decided to do music together, just like that.

When was the exact moment when it made click and you found your formula?

We don’t think like that, that's why we stayed a long time without releasing anything, its very hard to get away of your own style and that's what we try to do! We don't want to sound the same!

How do you feel now about working and producing and playing together?

This is what we like to do, so we try to get fun. Of course you have to learn how to deal with the road and highs and lows. We like playing and producing together!

Things started to go ballistic when you got signed to Items&Things in 2008.... how was it beforehand, what kind of outlook did you have in Brazil?

We were just making music because we love it, and that's also how it is right now. We are the same duo and we try to make cool music and make people dance!

Are you still based in Sao Paulo?

Yes, we are still here. We have a little company here, its an audio production house for advertising and sometimes we like to produce some artists. We co-produced the album ‘La Plata’ from Jota Quest, a Brazilian pop rock band, and now we are working with a new band called Inky. We are also working on a new project called ‘Bleeping Sauce’, its a kind of rock synth pop formed by us and a singer, Eli Iwasa.

The scene in Brazil has changed a lot in recent years, what do you think about where it all went..., and how does this affect your live set and productions?

The scene here is really far away of being a scene - promoters and agencies needs to learn to work together and make it strong!

Another change you are living through is that Magda, Troy and Marc are now running Items&Things independently... how did you feel about that change, what consequences did this have for you?

This is really good for us, we started releasing on Items & Things back in 2008 and then on M_nus. As we said before, when we go to the studio we like to do a lot of different stuff so it’s nice to have different platforms to release our music!

What kind of music are you making at the moment?

We like to think that we are making music, not rotate it. It’s a mix of all things we like. Techno, house, 80's stuff etc...

Where will it be released?

For sure -- on Items & Things, Minus and Noise Music, a Brazilian label from DJ Anderson Noise, a very good friend!

You use lots of analogue gear but also combine it with modern technology... what is your philosophy? We like to use what we think that sounds good, we could be fine with just a Roland Juno 60 and a 707!